In “The Reason For God: Conversations on Faith and Life,” Timothy Keller fostered conversations with an assortment of people outside the Christian faith. The purpose of the conversations is to explore true Christianity and address the criticisms of Christianity. The following are overviews of the first three discussions.
Discussion 1: Isn’t the Bible a Myth? Hasn’t Science Disproved Christianity?
While science is viewed as the pursuit of truth, it is all a myth and therefore points to a belief in faith. Science itself can be a religion; yet, it does not provide answers to everything (such as guilt, meaning in life, right and wrong, love) but the Bible does have those answers. Some people argued that there can be truth in everything or that truth is truth if it is to truth to that person. This shows how people believe that is obvious truth in the physical world there but there is not in the moral and spiritual. Christianity teaches cohesion between the physical and
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One critic talked about how we focus too much on semantics of your god and my god. He wondered, if we are all having this same great experience of god, why do we have to say mine is better than yours? To address that, most main religions teach the same way to live your life. Where they differ greatly is how one is saved. Christianity teach salvation by grace. Everyone needs to be sympathetic towards Christians when they say Christ is the only way, because it is impossible for Christians to agree there are other ways to God for then they would not be holding to their faith. Critics argue that Christians are intolerant and exclusive; yet, everyone is exclusive; everyone brings their religious values to the public square; everyone’s arguments are based on their idea of human flourishing and right and
Science and faith are generally viewed as two topics that do not intermingle. However, Andy Crouch’s work, Delight in Creation, suggests that there is an approach to both faith and science that allows support of scientists in the church community. There is an approach that can regard science as a career that can reflect the nature of God.
The foundation of a Christian worldview is the belief in a personal God, creator and ruler of the universe. The Christian worldview views the world through God’s word, providing the framework for humanity to live by giving meaning and purpose to life. It defines who Jesus is, human nature, and how salvation is achieved. In essence it is the basis of which Christians behave, interact, interpret life and comprehend reality. A Christian worldview imparts confidence, answers to life’s problems, and hope for the future. In this paper I will discuss the essentials of a Christian worldview and an analysis of the influences, benefits, and difficulties sustaining the Christian faith.
There are some theories that science cannot prove. Science explains all of the logical and natural things in life through observation and experimentation. Religion explains all of the spiritual and mystical things in life. Religion is the belief and worshipping of a supernatural force like God. Jane Goodall is an outlier in the science industry. She believes in God and is also a scientist. Most scientists are only agnostic or atheists. Scientists only have one viewpoint. They only think logically and try to prove the existence of things. Religious people believe in a higher power that created everything and control everything. Jane Goodall has the perfect philosophy. When science is the only “window” someone bases their life on, there are drawbacks because there are a lot of things science cannot explain, logically. When religion is the only “window” someone bases their life on, there are drawbacks because there are a lot of things religion cannot explain, spiritually. When a person bases their life on both science and religion, more mysteries are answered. When both science and religion is part of a person’s philosophy, there are no drawbacks because they either support each other’s claims, do not explain each other, or supports one but not the
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis is a timeless classic for Christian apologetics. He arranges the groundwork in the argument for Christianity in logical sequence. Starting first with explaining right verses wrong and how all humans can agree that there is a “moral law” that we all abide by. Then explaining what Christians believe regardless of denomination. Next, he covers the components of Christian behavior. Culminating in the explanation on the doctrine of the trinity of God. This book has catapulted my faith to a new level, clarifying the facts of the basics of Christianity.
Christian Science is a new religious movement that was founded by a lady named Mary Baker Eddy, born Mary Baker Rose on July 16, 1821 and sadly left this world December 3, 1821. Eddy continuously studied the Bible throughout her life and took a great liking to reading and understanding the sacred text. Growing up, she frequently stayed ill and highly emotional until one day she grew so very life-threatening sick that she simply asked for her Bible. After reading two of Jesus' healings, Eddy miraculously recovered from a severe fall on an icy sidewalk and became well again. After doing this...
W. Andrew Hoffecker. Building a Christian World View, vol. 1: God, man, and Knowledge. Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., Phillipsburg, New Jersey : 1986.
A Christian apologetic method is a verbal defense of the biblical worldview. A proof is giving a reason for why we believe. This paper will address the philosophical question of God’s existence from the moral argument. The presuppositional apologetic method of Reformed thinkers Cornelius Van Til and John Frame will be the framework. Topics covered here could undoubtedly be developed in more depth, but that would be getting ahead, here is the big picture.
In the book, Why God Wont Go Away, by Andrew Newberg, it seems that we are psychologically built to alleviate the existential fears and comfort us in this confusing and perilous world through invention and myths. From the earliest weapon to the latest technological revolution we are trying to make ourselves more secure in this world. That's one reason why it seems that in Christianities' earlier years it was either science or religion; you could not have both. Not only because they had conflicting goals and views, but also because when you had science, the human mind's ...
Religion and science are complementary elements to our society. The notion that religion and science should not be merged together, does not mean neglecting to understand the parallel relation between these two concepts and will result in a better understanding of our surroundings. This will put an end to our scientific research and advancement because we will be relying on answers provided by religious books to answer our questions. If we don’t argue whether these answers are right or wrong, we would never have studied space stars or the universe or even our environment and earthly animals. These studies have always provided us with breakthroughs, inventions and discoveries that made our lives better.
The relationship between science and religion is not easy to navigate. On the most basic level, they are viewed as different types of thought. Religion, it seems, deals with the subjective, spiritual realm. Science, on the other hand, seems to deal with facts. It may then appear easy to separate the two realms of thought, and philosophers, theologians and scientists have from time to time attempted to do this. Both science and religion make hypotheses about the fundamental nature of human existence and the nature of the universe, however, and inevitably the claims of each come into conflict. Whether this conflict occurs on a personal level or between opposing institutions, the claims of one often seem to place the other in dire jeopardy. We have seen demonstrations of such conflict throughout history, especially in relation to the Christian faith.
Scientists distinguish their work from religion by exploring physical reality, epistemology, methodology, and functions (Bethel, 2018). Scientists base their studies on physical matters or physical reality and religion based their studies on religious spiritual beliefs. Scientists can produce physical evidence of their studies and beliefs whereas religion requires faith and hope in what is considered truth since there is no evidence that can be examined and physically proven as fact. Scientists have different epistemology processes than religions. Scientific epistemology, or knowledge foundation, is based on the justification or proof of their beliefs through evidence and physical proof instead of relying on faith and revelations (Steup, 2018).
Helen Keller, the first deaf blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. In all, she wrote 12 books and many articles, including but not limited to: The Story of my Life, Optimism, The World I Live In, The Song of the Stone Wall, Out of the Dark, My Religion, Midstream-My Late Life, Peace at Eventide, Helen Keller in Scotland, Helen Keller’s Journal, Let Us Have Faith, Teacher, Anne Sullivan Macy, and The Open Door.
At first glance, many facets of science and religion seem to be in direct conflict with each other. Because of this, I have generally kept them confined to separate spheres in my life. I have always thought that science is based on reason and cold, hard facts and is, therefore, objective. New ideas have to be proven many times by different people to be accepted by the wider scientific community, data and observations are taken with extreme precision, and through journal publications and papers, scientists are held accountable for the accuracy and integrity of their work. All of these factors contributed to my view of science as objective and completely truthful. Religion, on the other hand, always seems fairly subjective. Each person has their own personal relationship with God, and even though people often worship as a larger community with common core beliefs, it is fine for one person’s understanding of the Bible and God to be different from another’s. Another reason that Christianity seems so subjective is that it is centered around God, but we cannot rationally prove that He actually exists (nor is obtaining this proof of great interest to most Christians). There are also more concrete clashes, such as Genesis versus the big bang theory, evolution versus creationism, and the finality of death versus the Resurrection that led me to separate science and religion in my life. Upon closer examination, though, many of these apparent differences between science and Christianity disappeared or could at least be reconciled. After studying them more in depth, science and Christianity both seem less rigid and inflexible. It is now clear that intertwined with the data, logic, and laws of scien...
The constant argument between religion and sciences is also influenced by faith. The belief that religion is the answer helps individuals to not require having a feeling of knowing the answers to the greatest philosophical puzzles of life, its existence, or creation. Those who support science have a more reasonable explanation (according to them) to what goes on around them. We are not to make religion and science clash, we should acknowledge both and allow them to coexist. We are curious in nature; we will always try to get answers even if we do not know the questions.
First off, it is important to realize that religion and science have to be related in some way, even if it is not the way I mentioned before. If religion and science were completely incompatible, as many people argue, then all combinations between them would be logically excluded. That would mean that no one would be able to take a religious approach to a scientific experiment or vice versa. Not only does that occur, but it occurs rather commonly. Scientists often describe their experiments and writings in religious terms, just as religious believers support combinations of belief and doubt that are “far more reminiscent of what we would generally call a scientific approach to hypotheses and uncertainty.” That just proves that even though they are not the same, religion and science have to be related somehow.